Company Was Subject Of Safety Complaints

An Oyster Point company, facing a possible Nuclear Regulatory Commission fine because an employee failed to secure a device containing radioactive material, has been the subject of previous safety complaints from a nearby business.

The commission said Thursday that the device, a moisture-density gauge owned by Newport News-based Foundation Engineering Science, was stolen from outside a Norfolk Wal-Mart on Oct. 18 when one of the company's employees failed to lock it in his pickup. The employee took a week to report it stolen, a company official said, and he was fired.

The gauge, which could cause harm if radioactive material inside it were mishandled, was turned over to federal authorities Friday by a pawnshop owner who bought it several days ago.

An employee of CTR, a business next door to Foundation Engineering, said CTR employees were getting sick last spring because Foundation Engineering failed to properly ventilate fumes from substances it handled.

The employee said symptoms caused by substances that smelled of sulfur subsided after CTR complained to the state Department of Labor and Industry in April, and that Foundation Engineering installed a ventilation system.

The CTR employee gave a Daily Press reporter copies of letters she said the Department of Labor sent to her that acknowledged the company's complaints and the state agency's requests for corrective action.

One of the letters states that Foundation Engineering apparently did not provide adequate ventilation for sulfur it melts, evaluate the hazard of hydrogen sulfide or complete a hazard assessment to determine the protective equipment needed for some of its work.

Raja El-Awar, a vice president of Foundation Engineering, said the company had installed a ventilation system since learning of the complaints in April. He said it also began burning the sulfur dioxide, used to make a groutlike compound, after 5 p.m., when CTR employees had left work.

"I guess the wind was blowing in their direction," El-Awar said.

Jennifer Wester, the Department of Labor's director of cooperative programs, said that Foundation Engineering corrected all the problems the state agency wanted fixed and that the case was closed May 3.

El-Awar said no one should have safety concerns about Foundation Engineering.

"We're obeying all the laws," he said. "We have zero concerns."

Mitchell Dunbar, owner of Superior Pawn, said he bought the device more than a week ago for $30, although it's worth thousands.

He said that when he learned while watching the news Friday morning that the gauge was stolen and could be dangerous if mishandled, he called the NRC.

"I'm glad it didn't get thrown out there in the Chesapeake Bay or in some dimp site," Dunbar said. "It was a happy ending to it."

According to The Associated Press, Richard Lawrence Danes, 34, whose last known address was in Virginia Beach, was charged Friday night with one count of grand larceny, one count of larceny with intent to sell and conspiracy to commit felony, said Norfolk police spokesman Chris Amos. All three charges are felonies, he said.

Police believe another person was also involved in the theft but don't yet know how involved and have not made an arrest, Amos said. They hope to get that information from Danes. *

State Action

The state Department of Labor and Industry said earlier this year that Foundation Engineering Science apparently did not provide adequate ventilation, evaluate the hazard of hydrogen sulfide or complete a hazard assessment.

A Department of Labor official said that the company corrected problems it wanted fixed and that the case was closed May.